Teachers employed by K12 Inc.'s charter schools may be asked to inflate attendance and enrollment records used to determine taxpayer funding.

Fewer than half of the students who start the online high schools earn diplomas, and almost none of them are qualified to attend the state's public universities.

K12's heavily marketed online model has helped the company reap more than $310 million in state funding over the past 12 years.

Students who spend as little as one minute during a school day logged in to K12's school software may be counted as present in records used to calculate the amount of funding the schools get from the state.

About half of the schools' students are not proficient in reading, and only a third are proficient in math -- levels that fall far below statewide averages.

School districts that are supposed to oversee the company's schools have a strong financial incentive to turn a blind eye to problems: They get a cut of the academies' revenue, which largely comes from state coffers.

In theory, Charters aren't bad if they are founded by local people wanting an alternative to public districts that have obvious problems. Even those are not perfect and can severely screw over kids with the incompetence of parents trying to do what they think teachers can't.

This is just sad and exactly why education really shouldn't be big business. But we may now see the free-market create jobs for lawyers who will sue on behalf of the families. Get ready for those pelvic mesh commercials go away and "were you harmed by K12?" to start up.

In theory, Charters aren't bad if they are founded by local people wanting an alternative to public districts that have obvious problems. Even those are not perfect and can severely screw over kids with the incompetence of parents trying to do what they think teachers can't.

This is just sad and exactly why education really shouldn't be big business. But we may now see the free-market create jobs for lawyers who will sue on behalf of the families. Get ready for those pelvic mesh commercials go away and "were you harmed by K12?" to start up.

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Maybe we can turn this to a win-win and send the charter kids who never got diplomas to the privately-run prisons. Capitalists can double their ROI.

Aren't online charters pretty much the go-to academic solution for the basketball-mill "prep schools" (i.e. AAU traveling carnival shows) which are popping up all over?

And the "academic standards" they are required to fulfill pretty much consist of the parent/guardian (or the kid himself if over 18) filling out a notarized statement saying, "Our kid be doing awesum good in skool. I grade him a 3.6"

Sweet, so there's already a business model! (actually I should have thought about that before my tongue in cheek comment)

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Yes. And, even better, some private prisons get towns to help fund building the prison as a job creating project then leave the town hanging with an empty prison if the private company decides the numbers aren't in their favor.